[12 weeks] A little goth squirrel, and some lists

I maybe don't have too much to say about this last week. The eyebrow tattoos peeled, taking a lot of dye with the skin flakes, and my face-caterpillars look pretty good now. In the back yard we've had a juvenile black squirrel visiting, and the local greys used to chase it off with great energy, but lately the chases look pretty desultory and I've also seen them just chilling. (In case you're wondering, yeah, these are actual sciuridae). So that's been a nice thing to watch. I take nuts out to the back fence every time I see the little black one out there.

At work, we did our annual reviews all day on Thursday. We're still on a morally reprehensible "forced distribution" of grades, and on Friday my brain was in full-on arson mode, but I managed to escape last year's crying jag. Some combination of being more resigned, the org being closer to the required distribution to begin with, and being one foot out the door. This maintains a boundary I set -- that if they didn't fix the distribution thing I'd leave. And I am leaving. I still have a solid eye-twitch going though, and a start on a whole new email backlog. Which I was going to work on this weekend but... didn't, because I saved it for last when I was nearly out of energy and then the cat fell asleep on me. Sigh.

Here's a partial list of things I'm excited about, most of which I won't get the chance to do before next spring, and that have been buzzing around in my head. Although some of the house things can likely be done over Christmas break. These might not sound universally fun, but I'm hoping that writing it out will give my poor brain a little relief so that I can focus on the tactical again.

• Doing the NYT crossword puzzle every day for real, possibly as a morning coffee thing.


• Putting together an actual spreadsheet of friends & people to stay in touch with. Doing something systematic about that.


• Clicker-training the impetuous young cat. I know she would love it and be smart enough, and I have the clicker kit... perhaps this is how we finally succeed in going for walks outside.


• Doing an audit of the art in the house, rotating some of it out, figuring out how to put some pieces on display that have been in storage and maybe vice versa. (I've sorta started this one, but only barely).


• Doing a really good clean of the front stairwell. Yes, I know this one sounds loony, but it needs it SO MUCH and would be perfectly pleasant with the right audiobook playing. I think I'll try to do it over the holiday break.


• Carving eggshells. No seriously, look at this video for an easy one. I want to try it!


• Another house thing: doing a real cleanout of the utility closet. It is, to the extent that we have a "that closet", that closet. And I can't do it alone.


• Training more (you knew I'd get around to this). Actually working on my new side splits program; maybe try the Handstand Factory approach for a couple of months to see what happens; having most afternoons free to do long workouts. Getting back into contortion class, which I miss.

And, mostly based on talks with the human squirrel, I've been thinking about ways to have fun while being frugal. I've been a bit concerned about that because of my high spending lately, but then I realized -- high spending was the plan and part of the tradeoff on working longer. It makes no sense to feel discouraged about part 2 of my plan based on successfully executing part 1. And I have had periods of plenty low spending in the past.

• Reading doesn't have to be expensive. I can get set up with Libby and normal library cards, a lot of audiobooks are part of Spotify now, and used books are still a thing.


• Knitting is something I've been toying with picking up again already, and I do still have some stash. This can be expensive, but mostly only if you buy yarn you don't need yet. If you only buy yarn you have a project for, and already HAVE an entire shelf of technique books and stitch dictionaries, not so much.


• Video games, if you're slow like me and, again, don't randomly accumulate.


• Cooking doesn't have to suck, if you're not in a hurry and actually have time for new recipes and putting a bunch of extra in the freezer. I want to try pasta e fagioli! I want to try avgolemono soup. I very sincerely want to figure out Costa Rican rice and beans. But these things are only fun when drastically not in a hurry.


• Drawing. Did you even know I draw? My friend is slowly working his way through the free drawabox.com exercises, and I have a few how-to-draw books that I haven't gone completely through either. Plus I've already had enough training to just go for it, with a lot of subjects anyway.


• Board games (again the focus has to be on the playing, not on the collecting).


• Taking walks, again. Because walks are the best.


• Lecture series on Youtube. I found a good one on logic that looks worthwhile.

Yeah... it's been a while but I think it can be good. And I won't need to do it extreme-sport style, anyway, just enough for my extra time to not increase spending. I think it's workable.